The Big Queen's Park FC Thread

[Derry Alli]

Pleased for your fans.

An absolute shambles all round.

[Grumpy Soo-sider]

30 minutes ago, par-adise said:

So by a quirk of history you play in the national stadium which is far too big for you. You sell said stadium for millions and use that proceeds to bank roll a rise through the leagues and to develop a stadium that looks like it will never be suitable for your new ambitions (if you are ever promoted to the premiership you will 100% play at hampden and rake it in from Of games), so you move back into the big stadium and lease the newly developed kiddies stadium out as a training pitch. Can you not see why some people find this a bit ludicrous?

So teams should not be allowed to use an alternative stadium?

The redevelopment of Lesser has been a shambles from the start but that should not mean Queens are not allowed to play at an alternative stadium. Hampden makes sense. It was our home for over a hundred years, and it was necessary to sell it to fund our move to the professional ranks. Our move 'home' is the logical solution for away fans as well as home fans.

[Grumpy Soo-sider]

29 minutes ago, DA Baracus said:

Why has the Lesser renovation been such a shambles? Why is it taking so long? Why are Queen's Park being absolutely rinsed and having the absolute pish ripped out of them?

I wish we knew - maybe a power struggle between the Committee and the Executive.

[HibeeJibee]

7 minutes ago, Grumpy Soo-sider said:

The redevelopment of Lesser has been a shambles from the start but that should not mean Queens are not allowed to play at an alternative stadium. Hampden makes sense. It was our home for over a hundred years, and it was necessary to sell it to fund our move to the professional ranks. Our move 'home' is the logical solution for away fans as well as home fans.

I think point people are making is no other club has had SFA buy their stadium and use proceeds to go full-time + build new ground. Only to then pass its use to SFA plus return to their stadium.

[Grumpy Soo-sider]

32 minutes ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

Well then they shouldn't have picked to go back to a stadium that wasn't available for the whole season. That's not really an excuse, it's poor planning.

 

 

These are my issues with it. In reality is it really going to make a huge difference? Not really. But to me a league season should involve all teams playing the same fixtures at the same locations.

Especially this way round. If Lesser Hampden had been a few weeks overdue being completed and they wanted to play at Hampden until it was ready in September I'd have more sympathy. But to play somewhere that is obviously suitable enough to host a game, and then move it somewhere else a few weeks later doesn't seem right.

I've got issues with it too - and I don't disagree with all your points. I think we should never have moved out of Hampden in the first place but circumstances dictated that we had to move. I honestly think this is being fair to away fans too - having an away allocation of a hundred or so tickets is not ideal for anyone.

[Velvet Donkey]

44 minutes ago, par-adise said:

So by a quirk of history you play in the national stadium which is far too big for you. You sell said stadium for millions and use that proceeds to bank roll a rise through the leagues and to develop a stadium that looks like it will never be suitable for your new ambitions (if you are ever promoted to the premiership you will 100% play at hampden and rake it in from Of games), so you move back into the big stadium and lease the newly developed kiddies stadium out as a training pitch. Can you not see why some people find this a bit ludicrous?

Ludicrous yes. Unfair no.

[par-adise]

9 minutes ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

No, we played at Hampden Park, owned by Queen’s Park Football Club and operated by a third party entity. The SFA were simply tenants. 

Yes, it is ludicrous. And the mistrust between fans will continue as long as these questionable decisions are made. I sincerely hope it is just a stepping stone while Lesser is completed. But at this time, with the info we have and the continuing lack of transparency, it’s still unclear where the end game is. QP fans must remain vigilant.

Yes but, correct me if I'm wrong, it's only in it's current condition due to public money being spent on its redevelopment. And this was only secured as it's the national stadium. If it wasn't then it would either be largely the same as it was 40 years ago or have been torn down by now. 

I do feel sorry for QP fans as this should be an exciting time for you, but it's just a bit of a shambles. 

[Arachnophile]

4 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

I think point people are making is no other club has had SFA buy their stadium

No other club built and owned the national stadium. I don't think Ochilview or Starks Park were viable alternatives

4 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

and use proceeds to go full-time + build new ground. Only to then pass its use to SFA plus return to their stadium.

Lots of clubs have sold their stadiums and used the proceeds to build new stadiums. Its not as if we ripped the SFA off - £5m (only half of which is being paid by the SFA) is a bargain for a 50k capacity ground.

[Bring Your Own Socks]

1 hour ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

Couple of things:

1. Clubs now can no longer move one off games to larger venue grounds.

2. Previously when Hampden was unavailable due to the running track being added then removed for the Commonwealth Games, you had to play half a season each at Airdrie to keep the balance of games "fair". Same happened with Inverness sharing at Pittodrie IIRC. Having only a few games there then moving makes no sense.

3. The other clubs who have shared (e.g. Clyde) have been there full time.

4. If Lesser can be used until September, it should be used all season IMO. If it isn't suitable after September for whatever reason then it shouldn't be used at all.

5. If you move back into "Big" Hampden Full time and paying rent then fine, but mixing and matching makes a mockery of things tbh. 

No.2. This was changed when Glasgow Rangers played at Murrayfield for a while. In addition to that, the Airdrie season meant us playing on a fairly thin artificial pitch and then switching to the best of grass surfaces. So it was deemed, rightly in my opinion, that for fairness to to the rest of the league equal amounts of time had to be played on each surface I.e. half a season. That’s not the case now. Both Lesser and Hampden have the same quality of hybrid pitch.

The SFA are taking from this too. There were two fixtures last December at Hampden where QP hosted Hamilton in a league game and Montrose in a cup game. No one seemed to notice or care. Looks like these were trial events and set a precedence. I mentioned at the time that the SFA would be interested to know how much they could possibly make from match days. When we played there as our home, we had the ticket sales but all the catering and concessions were part of the catering deal done with the SFA as the stadium operators. Events outside of matches, concerts, exhibitions etc were all cash for them. So they’ll be getting some coin. As well as free use of Lesser as a training campus for Scotland. Our directors get continued use of debenture seats while riffraff get overpriced and overcooked catering.

I don’t feel bad about the principle of this. Hampden is the third Hampden that QP built and we had that because we were the game’s pioneers. However, like a stately home it became unaffordable and we had to leave. The deal we got was ridiculously poor. We rant about the committee’s clusterfuck of today but the guy’s who negotiated us out of our house for a bag of rice and a packet of polo mints should be banned for life.

What I do regret though is reverting back to a cavernous place that is about as exciting to watch our football in as as sitting on a rock in a river waiting to see a salmon leap. I was genuinely excited about the prospects three years ago for our club but power and money have fucked us over like so many other teams.

[Pens_Dark]

I feel like fans of other clubs coming to remind QP of how much a shambles this whole saga has been is missing the point slightly. Quite obviously there will be no one who wants a permanent home more than them.

For the people in charge - piss up, brewery etc etc. They should hang their heads in shame for the incompetence.

[Zanetti]

7 minutes ago, Pens_Dark said:

I feel like fans of other clubs coming to remind QP of how much a shambles this whole saga has been is missing the point slightly. Quite obviously there will be no one who wants a permanent home more than them.

For the people in charge - piss up, brewery etc etc. They should hang their heads in shame for the incompetence.

People seem to be mistaking our happiness at finally being able to attend home games in the southside of Glasgow consistently since the 19/20 season, for an overall acceptance or even positive opinion on how the club is being run at the minute.

We're totally aware of how much of a mess the Lesser redevelopment (among other things) has been, and absolutely nobody is remotely ok with the lack of communication with supporters over the past few year. You could probably skip to any page in this thread at random and find complaints about it all. 

[JT1867]

2 hours ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

 

2. Previously when Hampden was unavailable due to the running track being added then removed for the Commonwealth Games, you had to play half a season each at Airdrie to keep the balance of games "fair".

That was the case when we moved back - Hampden was ready at the start of December 2014 but we had to wait until January 2015 to play there - but we moved out midway through the second quarter of the season in November 2013.

[Ben Reilly]

It has been stated by others on here already today, but all the fans of other teams complaining about "how unfair" this (admittedly strange) stadium situation is, are clearly not actually paying any attention to the facts.

Lesser Hampden will be suitable to play games at this season, but not with a capacity that would be acceptable for either home or away supports.

Lesser can't be expanded while it is being used regularly for games. It will need to be closed to the public for a number of months while construction work is ongoing.

The amount of time required to carry out this construction work is longer than the summer break between seasons, so there will never be a time when the work can be done without effecting part of at least one football season.

Putting up temporary stands would be a quick fix, but would then further lengthen the time required for the building of a permanent stand, as the temporary one would need to be removed first.

Training by the various QP and Scotland men's, women's and youth teams can still take place during any construction work as there will be no public access to those events. This will also include the other things like referee training etc that are mentioned in the statement.

Our registered ground for the entirety of the coming season is 'big' Hampden

Due to work required to relay the pitch at Hampden we need to move our games somewhere else while the work is carried out.

This temporary stadium to play our home games at until our registered ground is available could be anywhere, but none of the options are ideal for various reasons (capacity, clash with other teams, distance for traveling supporters etc). Therefore we have picked the 'least worst' option in Lesser.

As soon as our registered ground is ready, we will play there for the remainder of the season.

We may then choose an entirely different stadium as our registered ground the following season. E.g. a completed Lesser Hampden with a reasonable capacity for home and away fans.

None of the above is any different from, for hypothetical example, Motherwell wanting to build a new stand, choosing to register to play at Broadwood for a season while the work is carried out. Broadwood being unavailable for a few weeks while a new pitch is laid, so Motherwell play at Fir Park until Broad wood is ready then play there till the end of the season.

And the most important fact of all, - no matter how upset fans of other teams are by this whole saga, QP fans are far more pissed off about it than you'll ever be.

If any away fans are unhappy about the perception that we'll be coining it in by playing at big Hampden, how many people do you really think will be at those games. Given we tried to give Dundee as few tickets as possible for our final home league game of the season, are we really likely to sell 8000 to Dundee Utd or Partick Thistle to then out number our own support of (optimistically, with loads of free tickets given away to school kids) 3,500?

If you are really that upset, don't buy a ticket when your team are playing us at Hampden. That will stop us making as much money from playing there. The other option is we play at Lesser, and you still don't buy a ticket as there aren't any available for you.

[Hampden Diehard]

1 hour ago, HibeeJibee said:

I think point people are making is no other club has had SFA buy their stadium and use proceeds to go full-time + build new ground. Only to then pass its use to SFA plus return to their stadium.

If only the SFA had paid what it was worth. We were stuffed with the SFA threatening to pull out. Their first offer for the place was £1.

[Hampden Diehard]

1 hour ago, Derry Alli said:

Pleased for your fans.

An absolute shambles all round.

Bags of seats for you guys the next time you visit. No need to whine about your allocation and run to the SPFL in tears.

[Hampden Diehard]

Bottom line is, you exploit whatever you can to help your club. Whether that's a rich American pumping money in, a local business doing the same, or a pools winner generously handing over his winnings. With us, it was getting cheated out of our investment in one of the world's iconic football venues and being allowed back in. Them's the breaks.

[Cyclops van Gogh 1867]

31 minutes ago, Hampden Diehard said:

If only the SFA had paid what it was worth. We were stuffed with the SFA threatening to pull out. Their first offer for the place was £1.

Given the recent lack of anything happening and the accompanying news blackout, I'm reasonably happy with the latest arrangements with the SFA. Quid pro quo you might say.

[Derry Alli]

34 minutes ago, Hampden Diehard said:

Bags of seats for you guys the next time you visit. No need to whine about your allocation and run to the SPFL in tears.

Run to SPFL on tears :

Run to SFA in tears : 

Thems be the differences.

[BuddyZero]

Not sure if anyone has brought this up already, but there is still the matter of tests / H&S at Lesser. Definitely there will be an effort to swap as many home fixtures to away as possible, but I would reckon any at Lesser will be behind closed doors. I could see a motivated, quick-moving and diligent organisation getting something put in place for the 600+Royal Box by the start of the season, but I don't see this regime being sufficiently blessed in any of those departments to make it happen. 

[Arachnophile]

3 minutes ago, BuddyZero said:

Not sure if anyone has brought this up already, but there is still the matter of tests / H&S at Lesser. Definitely there will be an effort to swap as many home fixtures to away as possible, but I would reckon any at Lesser will be behind closed doors. I could see a motivated, quick-moving and diligent organisation getting something put in place for the 600+Royal Box by the start of the season, but I don't see this regime being sufficiently blessed in any of those departments to make it happen. 

Its not 600  - its about 900 (still shite I know - but 50% more shite)

 

And I have absolute confidence that those in charge of the club will have everything in hand to meet whatever requirements need to be  met. 




...or not